


A Sea as Red as Sunset

by Barid (Finale)



Series: A Sunlit Sea [1]
Category: Naruto, One Piece
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi, Uchiha keep ending up weird places, Uzumaki Shanks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-18
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2020-09-08 03:04:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20290261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Finale/pseuds/Barid
Summary: When Shanks was eight, Uzushio fell.When Shanks was twenty seven, he found Uzushio again.Now, just what will happen when a certain Red Haired Emperor refounds a certain ninja village...?





	1. Prologue: Red Sky at Mourning

It’s the same thing every year. 

Benn takes a drag of his cigarette, studying Shanks’ locked door. He knows from experience that nothing short of a true emergency will drag him out on this day. The last time it had happened, it had been a massive storm near Alabasta, and they’d needed all hands on deck. When it was done, he’d promptly relocked himself into his room, and didn’t come out until the following day. 

It’s the only time Shanks drinks by himself, and it’s not drinking to party or celebrate. He’d had to get it out of Buggy that today is the anniversary of wherever Shanks is from was destroyed. Buggy claimed to not know the name or anything about what actually happened during the destruction, but Benn’s certain the other former Roger pirate is lying. He’s pretty sure he’s also lying about not knowing anything of Shanks life from before his home was destroyed.

Benn heads back up to the deck. Watching the door won’t do any good. 

He has to wait, and hope Shanks is willing to some day talk about what happened.

* * *

Shanks drinks to forget. To forget a city that felt like it had built out of the sea, full of shining whites, and gleaming golds, and vibrant reds. He drinks to forget parents, and siblings, to forget family dead in water that ran red. 

He can’t forget the last sight of Uzushio, and Mom’s form collapsing as the Mizukage kills her. He can’t forget the sight of Dad’s body slipping into the water, most likely to never be seen again. He can’t forget the hope that in Konoha Kushina would stay safe, and that at least one sibling survived. He can’t forget the hope that maybe some more of them escaped, that Uncle Issho’s transportation seal saved more than just him.

<strike> _ (A baby in a world where she shouldn’t be, a ten year old in a sacred city, too many others like them) _ </strike>

There’s a part of him that hopes to find his way back to Uzushio. Would the village have been rebuilt? Or would Kiri have absorbed it? He hopes like hell they didn’t absorb it, he can’t even handle the thought of that sort of desecration. Hopefully Konoha made it to at least bury their dead <strike> even if they failed to save them. </strike>

He swirls the sake in his cup, studying it. Makino had given it to him before they’d left. 

He shuts his eyes and sprawls out on his bed. He misses Makino. Last year’s anniversary he’d been with her, and whispered stories about Uzushio into her skin. He used to do that with Buggy too when they’d been kids. The only people who know about Uzushio are Makino, Buggy, and Rayleigh. The Captain had known, but he’s long dead. 

Huh. 

Rayleigh’s the only father he still has alive, and Buggy may be his only sibling alive.

<strike> He really hopes Kushina is still alive. </strike>

He takes another sip of his sake (can’t chug something Makino gave him) and then a wave slams hard enough into the ship to knock him off the bed. 

_ ...Owwww. _

* * *

Benn has no clue where the storm suddenly came from, or the ridiculously strong current that’s making it all but impossible to sail the ship. Ropes are coming off sails, and he can see Lucky straining against the helm to make sure they don’t crash into anything. 

_ Fuck. This storm is worse than Alabasta’s. _

He looks over his shoulder as he hears a door suddenly slam open, and Shanks stumble onto deck. The red head isn’t as drunk as Benn would have assumed, and his steps steady as he runs towards him. 

“When did the storm come up?” Shanks demands. 

“Just now. Sky went from clear to black in less than thirty seconds,” Benn says, watching Shanks grab a flailing rope. “Seas are much rougher than they should be too.”

Shanks grimaces at that, and Benn can’t blame him. They both wanted to reach the New World as soon as possible, not get trapped in an unexpected storm in Paradise. 

“I see land!” Yassop shouts, high up in the crows next. “Should we head toward it Captain?”

“I don’t think we have a choice,” Shanks yells back. “Current is dragging us that way!”

Benn’s grimace deepens. 

The only thing they can do is hold on, and pray what he now realizes are whirlpools don’t drag them down. 

_ Fuck, where did they come from!? _

* * *

Shanks shivers as the storm vanishes, but the current is still dragging them along. Out of the corner of his eye he thinks he sees some mist covered islands, and something about them makes his stomach clench in...fear? Why would a mist covered island scare him? It’s not like it’s the Floridian Triangle. He’s been near that horror before, and knows how it feels. 

“Captain, up ahead!” Yassop shouts, pointing to something Shanks can barely see in the distance. 

An island that looks like it’s covered in rubble and feels weirdly familiar. 

Wait. 

They got caught and dragged by whirlpools. 

They just passed an island covered in mist that scares him. 

They’re heading toward an island covered in rubble that feels familiar. 

_ “I want to find it again,” he said to Buggy, hugging his knees to his chest. “I want to find my way home again.” _

An island covered in rubble, a sunrise casting the broken building into hues of golds, and reds, and whites. 

He steps to the bow of the ship, ignoring Benn’s look, and for the first time in decades breathes out, reaches for something not-Haki and _ senses _. 

_ “You’re an Uzumaki. We’re lucky we’ve always been good at this,” Uncle Issho had said. “Just focus, and you can feel Uzushio.” _

For the first time in decades, he can sense Uzushio.

* * *

_ An ephemeral figure walks amongst the rubble and watches a missing son return. _

_ Uzu smiles, and calls her other children home. _


	2. Uzushio's Razing and Rising

“Where are we?” Yasopp asks, following Shanks off the ship with the others. 

Shanks takes a deep, shuddering breath. 

“Uzushiogakure. I was born here,” Shanks says shortly. 

Yasopp glances around at the ruins, stomach dropping. He doesn’t want to ask the question on the tip of his tongue.  _ Did you know this happened?  _ He’s not entirely sure he can actually ask that. He glances at a grim looking Benn, and knows instinctively what question he’s about to ask. 

“When did this happen?” Benn asks. 

Shanks pauses, face expressionless. He keeps walking instead of responding, glancing at the ruins as he goes. A huge part of Yasopp is grateful they haven’t seen any bones so far. It seems like someone had come and buried the dead. He hopes they’d buried the dead at least, and that they hadn’t instead sunk below the water. 

“When I was eight,” Shanks says, eyes closing. “Captain Roger found me six months later.” 

“So when you say you came from West Blue…”

“I was  _ technically _ not lying. I have honestly no clue what sea the Elemental Nations leads into. It may really be West Blue, but after this I’m not so sure. My Uncle Issho devised teleportation seals before I was born that were supposed to be used in case of emergency, but he’d never had the chance to run tests on them. Then the attack happened and I think he must have decided it was worth a shot,” Shanks explains. “I went from watching my parents die to being bruised and bleeding in a random port in West Blue.”

Yasopp winces. That was...damn. He looks at the rubble and ruins around them, and it almost makes him think of the aftermath of a Buster Call, something they’ve had the misfortune of coming across before.

Shanks goes silent again, opening his eyes and starts walking. He seems like he knows where he’s going even in the ruins. It feels almost like he’s following a familiar path, like knows from the harbor to... 

It’s another ruin, but a massive one. It looks like a bunch of buildings had been enclosed behind a wall, separating it from everything else. The walls are now more than half collapsed, and plenty of the buildings are just rubble. 

But it’s to the rubble that Shanks goes, and they follow, just like they always will.

* * *

The clan compound is in shambles. 

Shanks looks around at the once pure white walls. There’s dark stains he doesn’t want to think about, and he’s just realized there’s no bodies in the courtyard. He hasn’t seen any bodies, or bones. Konoha must have eventually have been able to make it there to at least bury the bodies.

Why no, he isn’t bitter that in the week they held out Konoha never arrived. Why ever would you think  _ that _ ? It’s not like they were the oldest alliance of the Hidden Villages, and Uzushio wasn’t close to the goddamn shores of Hi no Kuni. It’s not like they sent his sister to Konoha to be their jinchuriki. Totally not bitter that even with all that Konoha never arrived to help them.

_ Totally not. _

“Where are we?” Roo asks, looking around. 

“This was my clan’s compound,” Shanks says, wondering if any of the old protective seals were still active. “Members of my clan, the Uzumaki lived or could live here. My immediate family was the leaders the clan so I grew up in the compound with my sister Kushina and a few dozen cousins.”

“How many of you were there?” 

“Before we were slaughtered? Almost three hundred,” Shanks says, trying to ignore the memories of using chakra to scramble up the compound walls after his cousin Mito. If she’d survived she would have passed her exams for seal master; she’d been due to take them a week after the attack happened, which obviously meant she never got the chance. “We were the largest clan. The other two clans that made up Uzu no Kuni’s ‘Noble Three’ had a little over a hundred in the case of the Fujiwara, and just under a hundred in the case of the Takahashi.” 

He’s almost proud of himself for remembering that. He’s more sad about it though.

“How big was Uzushio? And Uzu no Kuni,” Benn asks, tripping over slightly how to pronounce ‘Uzu no Kuni’.

“The entire country? About twenty five hundred people,” Shanks says. It’s weird to talk about this after staying silent about it to his crew for so long, but somehow Benn asking about it is helping him. “We had an ally, Konoha, and they had closer to twenty thousand people living there,” he adds. “With Hi no Kuni having about a hundred thousand people.”

“Damn,” he hears someone murmur.

Yasopp grimaces, looking like he’s trying to decide what to ask next, but Shanks already knows what it’ll be.

“We were attacked by a nearby Hidden Village, Kirigakure and an elite squad from Iwangakure,” Shanks says, cutting off Yasopp’s question and sitting down on some rubble. “There was a war going on, the Second Shinobi World War. Uzushio and Konoha had been the first and strongest alliance of any Hidden Village. They wanted to destroy us since, even though we were tiny we were known for being incredibly powerful and very dangerous. One of my great aunts, Mito, had for example been able to seal the most powerful bijuu alive into herself in the middle of a fight with only minutes worth of prep time.”

“So they decided to attack us, and even though we held out for a week, against almost eighty elite Iwa nin and almost seven thousand Kiri nin, we eventually fell. Konoha never came, and we died for it,” Shanks says, clenching his fists. “Maybe they came after everyone was dead and buried us, or maybe Kiri decided to be vaguely honorable and bury our dead along with their own. But we couldn’t hold out against almost seven thousand enemy ninja, not by ourselves.”

He takes a shuddering breath. “I don’t know how many of us survived,” he says, voice cracking. “I don’t know if anyone survived but me.” 

“Shanks, I’m going to suggest something, and I won’t blame you if you punch me or nail me with Conqueror’s Haki,” Benn says, waiting for him to get his breathing under control. “But why don’t we use Uzushio as a safe haven? Make new memories here. Bring our families here and hide treasure.”

Shanks blinks slowly at his first mate and best friend. 

“What the fuck Benn. I literally just described how the village _ died _ . Kiri still exists over on those large islands we passed,” Shanks says flatly. “The only way we could do it is if I can find and then set up security, barrier and disguise seals to make sure no one can tell there’s something going on here. I know they should exist, and I know the theory of how to set those sort of things up, but…” But honestly he’s almost tempted. He found home again. It may be broken. It may be  _ dead _ . But...but maybe he can bring it back to life.

<strike> Maybe if any of his family survived he can give them home again. Maybe Uzushiogakure and Uzu no Kuni can rise again. </strike>

“You know what. Fuck it. Let’s do it.” 

* * *

When the Den Den Mushi goes off at three am, Buggy contemplates how many times he’ll need to stab his caller. He’d gone to bed only two hours earlier, and his head is killing him after all the vodka he’d had. 

That eighth shot had been a mistake.

“I found it,” the caller says, and Buggy would like to know why it sounds like Shanks is calling him sober in the middle of the night. 

“You found what? Your common sense?” Buggy says, sending a hand off get himself a cup of water. 

_ “ _ No.  _ I found Uzushio. _ ”

Buggy chokes and barely avoids dropping his glass of water.

“You found what?!” He glances at the calendar on his wall and his eyes go huge. Wait, yesterday was...

“I found Uzushio,” Shanks repeats. “I found it on the anniversary of it falling,” he adds, now a hint of hysteria entering his voice. “I found it on the anniversary, everything is in ruins and I can see stains on the streets everywhere from where people fought and died and I’m surprised I’m not seeing any bodies and nothing is right.”

“Nothing is right, but at least you found it again,” Buggy says. He wonders if it would be smart to grab more to drink, but he should stay sober(ish) for this conversation. “That’s what you’ve always wanted? Right? To find Uzushio again.”

“Yeah.” Shanks sighs. “Benn convinced me it would be a good idea to make a home port here. Base the crew out of here and bring back our treasure. Maybe even our families.”

“Really?” Buggy says, not expecting that. It doesn’t entirely make sense. While it would be safe from other crews, the Marines, and the World Government, it didn’t mean it would be safe from whoever initially destroyed Uzushio (some places called Kiri and Iwa). 

“No one would expect it here, even in the other Elemental nations. If I find the right seals and put up the right wards, no one will be able to tell anyone is here,” Shanks explains. “Uzushio didn’t need those sort of wards and seals, but they do exist. Mom told me. I’d just need to make sure the power matrixes properly aligns with the islands’ keystones and…”

The next five minutes are a jumble of jargon he doesn’t understand, but he’s pretty sure he’s making understanding ‘hmms’ and ‘okays’ at the right times. He’s kind of confused how the hell Shanks knows any of this, since he’s pretty sure this is way too advanced for a little kid to have been taught. 

“Hey Shanks, how the hell do you know any of that?” Buggy asks, unable to resist. “Since that sounded really advanced.” 

“That was really simple seal theory?” Shanks says, sounding confused. “Or at least from an Uzumaki standpoint it’s pretty simple theory...we are known for having a kind of bizarre understanding of seal work,” Shanks admits. “Supposedly a blessing from the goddess Uzu.”

“...Your last name is Uzumaki and you’ve supposedly been blessed by a goddess named  _ Uzu _ ?”

"We're technically supposedly descended from like, six gods and goddesses. Uzu of the Seas, Kanna of the Fresh Water, Ashura of the Forest, Arashi of the Storm, Inari the Trickster, and the Sage of Six Paths," Shanks rattles off. "Oh, and Kaguya of the Heavens."

…

“I’m not touching that,” Buggy decides. 

“That’s understandable,” Shanks says. “And thanks for distracting me from the dread I’m feeling over rebuilding the village, and figuring out a method of making sure it stays hidden and safe.”

“You’re welcome. Call the old man and Shakky in the morning,” Buggy orders. “And tell me when you’re going to be heading to Sabaody,” he adds, starting to calculate the best way to get from East Blue to Sabaody alone and without anyone noticing him. “Let’s all meet up.”

“Agreed. I’ve got another story to tell you anyway about a beautiful woman I want to marry, a cute kid I half adopted and gave Captain Roger’s hat, and how I lost my arm!”

**“YOU DID WHAT?!”**

* * *

According to family legend, Uzu no Kuni had once been ruled by the goddess Uzu, the Lady of the Sea. She, Kaguya and Tsuchi were the first three gods, the ones who took the abyss and formed it into land and sea and sky. But Uzu no Kuni had been where she’d made her home, and where she’d met Asura and Kanna, eventually leading to the birth of the Uzumaki clan. 

Uzu and Asura had had a son named Arashi, who Uzu granted the last name Uzumaki. From there, the clan, originally was ‘founded’ by Uzumaki Arashi and his wife Uzumaki Inari. For the next thousand years, the Uzumaki clan had ruled Uzu no Kuni in some fashion, with the largest cult dedicated to Uzu herself. Most of the temples were above ground in the tidal pools around the village and on the other islands, but the oldest and largest was underneath Uzushio itself. 

He knows it’s in that temple that they hid all the kinjutsu which would include all the barrier seals and all the ‘notice me not’ seals. So far he’d discovered extremely limited looting in the village itself, and he suspects it’s because people  _ did  _ have the time to seal things for safety. But the temple is only accessible by his branch of the Uzumaki, so Kiri never would have been able to even find it. There was a strange and complicated space-time seal hiding it, and there’s no mention of how it works or who made it in the family records. 

So Shanks walks down ancient stairs, an eerie light keeping everything visible even though there’s no sign of anything that should be causing the glow. It’s creepy, but he has admittedly seen weirder on the Grand Line. He still has no clue how the darkness on Milton Island was visible for example. 

He reaches the end of the tunnel and walks into the main room of the temple. He vaguely remembers from his Mom that...He freezes. 

There’s a woman lounging on the alter.

“You know, it has been a very long time since I last saw a member of your family in my temple Hajime,” the woman says, smiling faintly at him. Her eyes are the purple so common to his family, and her hair as red as sunset. There are seashells in her hair with strands of pearls around her neck and wrists. “I have missed seeing my children.”

Uzu looks exactly like her statues.

His mouth drops open.

“Do not look at me like that, you have to have realized I would come to speak with you,” she says, tilting her head slightly, ancient eyes studying him. “I speak with all the Arashikage, with all the shoguns of Uzu no Kuni. You will be the next Arashikage, the Yondaime.”

“I didn’t realize you spoke to any of us,” Shanks says, stunned to realize that his clan was right about being descended from Uzu. And honestly not too sure how to respond to the Yondaime Arashikage bit. He’s a pirate, not a Kage. “None of the family stories said anything about that.”

“Hmm. You will need to change that,” Uzu says. “It will make things less confusing for you children.”

“...I don’t have kids.”

“Do you really believe your lovely Makino won’t want children, more than just your little Anchor?” Uzu asks, and her knowledge of Makino and Luffy is creepy. Then again.  _ Goddess _ . Who was…

“Do you live down here?”

“Sometimes,” she says with a shrug. “And sometimes I live elsewhere and am elsewhere. But here and my other throne are my favorites.”

“Alright…” he says slowly. “Do you know where the kinjutsu are?” he asks, kind of wanting this unnerving conversation to be over.

“Here,” she says, holding up a scroll. “Or rather, these are the seals and map of the power matrixes you need. The index to the vault is also in it.”

“Convenient,” he murmurs.

“I on occasion do try to be helpful,” she drawls, sitting up and holding the scroll out. “Especially in light of having been so distracted I could not help you twenty years ago.”

He stiffens as he takes the scroll. 

“You knew?” he asks, voice cracking. 

“Not until it was too late,” she says with a shake of her head. “Matters took my Sight elsewhere and I erred. I still do not know who ordered your attack, since it was more than just Mizu no Kuni’s spawn. Someone does not want me to See.”

Shanks grimaces. “I’ll keep that in mind,” he says, bowing to her. “I must return to the village and my men and set the seals and wards,” he says. 

“You have my permission to leave,” she says. “Be well and be safe, both at shore and sea.”

He bows again and turns away. 

He wants to get out of the temple and think.

* * *

Uzu smiles fondly as she watches Hajime walk back out of her shrine. It’s been decades since she last was able to properly speak with one of her descendants. So many either died or fled her shores, refusing to return. So frustrating when there are some so close by. 

But the village being rebuilt, the hope of it rising again…

Uzu’s smile deepens, feeling the thrum of her summons to her descendents to come home, feels the loyal clans and other children of her waters. Soon enough it will be more than Hajime and his crew. 

Soon enough Uzu no Kuni will be alive again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Sorry for the long break between this and the prologue, the chapter just didn’t want to work. Hopefully will get the next few chapters out faster, but hey! In taking so long at least we got more information on Shanks the Emperor, including just when(ish) he became one! So that’s helpful as hell to me.
> 
> So Shanks’ birth name (here) is Uzumaki Hajime. Hajime can mean ‘beginning’, which is rather apt, don’t you think? He renamed himself Shanks after he ended up in West Blue for mumble mumble reasons. Also, rather obviously, there's not a chance in hell that in the Elemental Nations he would have been given a name like Shanks. Oh, and the reason the Kage for Uzushiogakure are called 'Arashikage' is a reference to the first Uzumaki, Arashi who was the storm god.
> 
> You’ll notice that there’s now a second fic in the series! That fic will be all the ‘myths’ that make up the cosmology for the universe. This will include things like the ‘creation’ myth, a three part cycle concerning Kaguya and her sons, how the hell the Senju, Uchiha, Uzumaki and Hyuuga clans came to be, etc.  
[Here's some art of Uzu, Lady of All Waters](https://violetfoxsketches.tumblr.com/post/614767565353484288/digital-painting-commission-for-barid-bel-medar)
> 
> For any of you interested, you can find me on [tumblr](barid-bel-medar.tumblr.com) or join me on my [discord](https://discord.gg/FkzgtHr)

**Author's Note:**

> Hey look, I'm trying something new! Lemme know what you think!
> 
> Yes, going with the idea of Shanks as Kushina's (younger) brother, and thus Naruto's uncle. 
> 
> To give a time line, at this point in time, Naruto is five, and Luffy is seven. Shanks only left Dawn Island a few months ago. 
> 
> As a heads up, I will be attempting to create a logical cosmology, aka I fucking hate the alien rabbit moon goddess bullshit, and am building something that hopefully makes far more sense. There will be a fic that includes all the 'world myths' of this universe, including how the Uzumaki, Senju and Uchiha clans came to be, how the world was created, where did the Ds come from, and what *is* going on with Kaguya.
> 
> For any of you interested, you can find me on [tumblr](barid-bel-medar.tumblr.com) or join me on my [discord](https://discord.gg/FkzgtHr)


End file.
